Spouting Cave

      Taking up my brother's challenge to meet Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) during my stint in the States, I'm elated to discover she's giving her congressional inaugural address in New York on the Saturday after my arrival. My old pal Paul takes an overnight bus from Savannah to join me for this moment of serendipity. The event is five miles north of Manhattan, deep in eastern Bronx - the Boogie Down, the birthplace of hip hop. Our bus passes clusters of mud-brown high-rise housing projects, common in many corners of New York, stopping next to a freeway, outside the Free NYC WiFi range and far from the tourists. There appear to be few nearby amenities, save for a Dunkin’ Donuts across the street. A couple of inconspicuous A4 sheets of paper sellotaped to the wall state simply ‘Inaugural address this way’, leading us to the Renaissance High School for Musical Theater and the Arts. We’re uncharacteristically early but queues are already forming and we get chatting